Worth Every Second
by AZ1087653
Summary: How does a famous author learn what he needs to write in his novels after traveling with the Doctor? He needs to visit Torchwood! Story involves non-consensual sexual acts and language.
1. Chapter 1

This mini-chapter fic was brought on by my obsession with the Discovery Health Channel. There was a segment on people who were their own twin. A good reference for anything mentioned in the story is the wikipedia website.

I own nothing and don't claim to. This just seemed like something that would be fun to write and put these, already created, characters through.

This is a "Torchwood" story.

Special guest star H.G. Wells /yes the author/

Special guest appearances by Doctor Who six and his current companion Peri.

This story takes place in the "Torchwood" timeline after that tie-in "Doctor Who" episode – "Journey's End"

For the chronology involving the sixth Doctor and Peri; this story takes place after "Timelash", where H.G. Wells makes a guest appearance. If the writers of the franchise can use a real person, then I can too. /Actually this just seemed to fit, but I have no money and make nothing from this, so if you want to sue, there isn't much to take./

Worth Every Second

"Sometimes I wonder why they still allow you to fly this thing." Peri complained after the TARDIS came to a crashing halt, somewhere.

"I already told you I didn't pass the driver's test." The Doctor said, standing himself up and brushing his psychedelic coat off, knocking off his latest cat pin. "Besides, I wasn't the one driving this time. Someone or something took control while we were in mid-flight."

The Doctor walked over to the control console of his TARDIS and looked at the readings. He was rather engrossed, so when he felt someone behind him, he actually jumped. "Herbert, do you mind not standing directly behind me?" The Doctor asked.

"Does this mean you haven't taken me back home yet Doctor?" The man known as Herbert Wells asked.

"I don't know." The Doctor said in a puzzling tone. He pushed the eager young man out of the way and walked around to the opposite side of the TARDIS and looked at a readout, pushed a button, and a picture popped up on the screen.

"Doctor, that's not Scotland." Peri stated.

"You're right my dear, it's Cardiff." The Doctor smiled, looking at his companions. "Early twenty-first century, if memory serves."

He walked over to the navigation console again and tried to start the ship up. After a second it sputtered to life, then promptly died.

"Doctor…?" Peri began in a whining tone. The Doctor stuck his hand up and silenced her.

"We're fine Peri. She's just a little energy drained and will probably be okay in a day or so." The Doctor lowered the level of the lights in the console room, then throughout the ship.

"Does that mean we can explore?" Herbert asked, hopes soaring through the roof.

"Now you listen to me Mr. Wells." The Doctor said, getting into the young man's face. "You've seen more than enough to keep you occupied for the next few decades. I don't want you wandering around out there."

Herbert's face fell and he stalked off toward the food pantry.

"Why couldn't we let him out, all we have to do is put a leash on him." Peri suggested, with a small amount of sarcasm.

The Doctor clapped his hands and looked at the girl. "What a good idea. How about we put one on you too?"

"Funny Doctor, real funny." Peri said, following in Herbert's wake.

/GG/

Gwen Cooper pushed the door to her flat open and all but fell inside from pure exhaustion. Working for the police department had been one thing, but working for Torchwood had all but drained her life force.

It was barely two in the morning when she shut the door to her home, then closed her eyes and shuffled to her bed, where Rhys was sure to be sleeping. Gwen didn't even bother taking her clothes off as she entered the bedroom; she was too tired. Opening her eyes would have been a good idea though, since she tripped over a discarded shoe and crashed onto the floor.

"Bollocks!" She whispered harshly. She was now completely awake and knew it would be a few hours before she would succumb to sleep. "Just enough time to get ten minutes in before Jack calls and demands my attention," she thought.

She reached over and grabbed the offending shoe and looked at it. It was hers of course; she must have slipped it off and kicked it forward without realizing it.

"One of these days Gwen, you'll be able to kick your shoes backward and not forward." She used her hands and pushed herself up, then trudged back into the other room, where she turned on the telly and watched the news.

"Local authorities are on the lookout for an unknown creature…" The news anchor was saying.

"Of course, why not." Gwen said, yawning and curling up on the sofa with a blanket.

"The creature has been identified as large, and mammalian, with…is this right?" The news anchor turned his head and looked off camera. "With the tail of a scorpion, or the like."

"Great, we've got beasts roaming Cardiff." Gwen said, on the verge of falling asleep. "Have Jack sick the Weevils on them."

Gwen was asleep before the news anchor started the next segment.

/GG/

Hermione Blackstone walked out of her office and started toward her car sometime around three-thirty. No one ever said Ms. Blackstone wasn't efficient and ruthless. She worked long hours, made bank and made her coworkers completely miserable. She was a tyrant.

She had just spent the day firing three people and causing four small businesses to tank because they couldn't keep up with their loans. She didn't care; you didn't take a loan from her institute if you couldn't pay it back. There was no grace period and there was no room for a free ride.

As she left the building and made for her car port, she put her work behind her and did a complete one-eighty in personality. Hermione Blackstone the finance office was different than Hermione Blackstone the human being. She took out her IPOD and started listening to eighties American music.

"Girls, they wanna have fun!" She sang at the top of her lungs. She reached for her keys at about the same time she felt eyes on the back of her neck.

It took moments for Hermione to turn around and see the figure standing behind her. Her eyes widened as she tried to see who was following her.

"Corbin?" She asked, finding her keys in her pocket. The figure made no sound, but moved stealthily forward and had her hands behind her back and her mouth covered before she could utter another word. "Mfp." She managed to get out as the figure pushed her to the ground.

She looked at the face of the figure and realized it wasn't Corbin, in fact it didn't even look like a man. Some woman was going to murder her!

Hermione struggled against the strength of whoever her attacker was, but it was no good. Her hands were fastened above here head with an unknown device and her mouth was soon covered with some sort of adhesive material.

Tears started to leak out of her eyes as she prayed to change her work habits and become more accommodating to her customers in the future. Then the shock came. The girl who was attacking her started to fuck her like a common rapist.

She could feel a pulsating organ inside of her, thrusting into her very core. How was a girl raping her? It just wasn't possible. Hermione knew the difference between a real dick and a pleasure toy; she'd had both in the past. Girls didn't possess male organs.

Moaning in terror was soon overshot by the feeling of seed being forced into her. Hermione turned her head, trying to keep from vomiting. She glanced at the eyes of the girl who just had her way with her, then she closed her eyes, letting her mind go blank.

/GG/

Herbert snuck into the console room and pressed the button he'd seen the Doctor use to open the doors of his time ship. He wasn't about to let an experience like this be stopped because the Doctor was a stick in the mud.

He grimaced at the amount of noise the doors made as they opened to the outside world. It took mere moments for him to be peaking his head outside the door; looking for anything interesting.

It was dark and looked almost like a cave, but that was more than enough for Herbert to become rather excited. He left a note on the console and ran out the door, making sure to shut it behind him.

He walked around the outside of the TARDIS and saw the outside world. He couldn't see stars, but he could see the moon setting in the west, so this was clearly Earth. Herbert took one more stride, then stopped. There was a noise coming from the inside of the cave.

Slowly, Herbert made his way to the front of the TARDIS and stopped. He tried to see what was further in the cave, but realized it was too dark. He started to pad his way forward, giving his eyes ample time to adjust to the darkness.

He saw something that resembled a motor car off to the side, but it was the mound in front of the car that caught his eye. He ran forward and knelt down next to the woman, who was missing her clothing from the waist down.

Herbert ducked his eyes in embarrassment; then started to bring his head around again. He noticed she was breathing, and being the gentleman his parents raised, he couldn't very well leave her.

He took off his jacket and covered her nether regions and was just about to pick her up and take her to the TARDIS when he heard another movement behind him.

"Oy, you lot!" He heard shouted in his general direction.

"I say, good man, could you please assist me." Herbert called; glad someone had come along and could help. He heard movement behind him and saw the man out of the corner of his eye.

"What kind of game are you playing?" The man asked in alarm. "You're under arrest." The man grabbed hold of Herbert's hands and put him in cuffs. He then took out his mobile and made a quick call to the police department.

"Got a man here with a woman whose been knocked out by the look of it." The officer said.

"Wait a minute. I didn't do anything. I found her." Herbert said; worry starting to cloud his mind.

"Tell it to the judge." The officer said, leading Herbert back out to his police car so he could flag down the ambulance.


	2. Chapter 2

Gwen drug herself into Torchwood sometime around ten that same morning, moving like a slug. She had fallen asleep in front of the telly and had just managed to wake up half an hour prior. What she really wanted to do was go back home, crawl into bed with Rhys, make love for a few hours, then fall into a blissful and orgasmic sleep.

Of course that wasn't about to happen; not when you worked for Torchwood.

"Gwen, where the hell have you been? I've been trying to contact you since six." Jack all but barked at her when he saw her enter.

Gwen looked at Jack and tried to focus her eyesight. She reached for her mobile and looked it at. The battery was dead.

"I can't help it, Jack, if you call me and message me so often it drains the battery." She went to her desk and pulled out a spare, turned on her phone and listened to the telltale sign of new messages. "Oh there they are." She said; voice full of sarcasm. "Let's see here." Gwen walked in front of Ianto and made her way toward Jack.

"Urgent, come into work, ASAP." She started reading messages. "Gwen, where are you? Call when you get this." She smiled. "Oh, here's a picture of Rhys's arse. Very nice."

"You can look at his ass later Gwen, right now I need your help." Jack said, snatching the phone away and taking a quick peak before he closed it. He glanced at Ianto who was giving him an evil look.

"What do you want Jack?" Gwen said, taking a drink of coffee right out of the pot.

"I've got fictional half lion, half scorpion creatures running around Cardiff. I want you down at the police station removing photographs and other evidence from their vaults."

"Technically the creature is called a Manticore." Ianto said evenly. Leave it to Ianto to know everything.

"What the hell is a Manticore?" Gwen asked, doing a quick internet search. "You've got to be joking. Someone saw this?" She asked, pointing to a picture on the screen.

"Not only saw it, but got a picture of it. I don't want that thing in the news papers. People are still trying to get over the twenty-odd planets in the sky. I don't need them freaking out because the rift has started bringing fantasy to life."

Jack handed the mobile back to Gwen and started to push her to the door. "I want this taken care of within the hour. Ianto and I are going on a lion hunt."

/GG/

Gwen walked into the police station a quarter of an hour later. She was still a little sluggish, but the sooner she finished Jack's wild goose chase, the sooner she could be back in bed.

She nodded to her old comrades as she made her way to the file room. The place hadn't changed; something she was glad for. At times she missed the simple life of a police officer. Then she remembered all she knew and decided it was better to be informed rather than uneducated.

"Gwen Cooper, look what the cat dragged in."

Gwen turned around and looked into the face of an old friend, Yvonne.

"What are you doing in my neck of the woods Cooper?" Her friend asked.

"I'm here on clean up detail, on my way to the file room." Gwen answered, smiling as Yvonne started walking with her.

"You can clean up more than the file room with all that's going on today." Yvonne said, shaking her head.

"Too tired to do that right now." Gwen said, yawning. "What's up?"

"Got a call this morning. Some woman was raped by another woman."

"That sounds lovely." Gwen said, not quite listening.

"The victim is insistent. Says a woman raped her, but the doctors found semen in her cervix." Yvonne said, handing Gwen the file.

"You're joking." Gwen looked over the file, realizing Yvonne could lose her job for giving it to her. "Is she sure it wasn't someone dressed in drag. It has been known."

"I'm not sure, but here's the bizarre part. She was found with a nutter claiming to be H.G. Wells." Yvonne pointed to the name. "The sperm wasn't his."

"Someone's running around claiming to be a dead author." Gwen asked, looking at the name. Sure enough, there was the name, printed in black and white.

"This gets stranger. He doesn't have any finger prints on file and claims to be traveling with someone called the Doctor."

The last part got Gwen's attention. She knew the name; she knew the face. This man probably wasn't lying.

"Can you bring him to me after I finish with the file search?" Gwen asked, knowing full well she was stepping over her boundaries.

"I'll probably get sacked, and not in the good way, but this is too weird, even for me. I need a vacation and this'll probably get me one." Yvonne said, winking and walking off.

/GG/

Yvonne and a man in some rather period looking clothes were both waiting for Gwen when she finished her file raid. She looked the man up and down and smiled.

"Mr. Wells, I presume?" Gwen said, extending her hand.

"Please, call me Herbert. Are you going to take me to the Doctor?"

"I'll try." Gwen said. "Thanks Yvonne. I owe you." Gwen took hold of Herbert's arm and started dragging him away from the police station.

"Who exactly are you?" Herbert asked when they got to Gwen's car and started driving off.

"I'm Gwen, I work for Torchwood and my boss will probably need to meet you before we find the Doctor." Gwen said, turning the car toward the office.

"I guess the Doctor was right, I shouldn't have gone wandering. Though I have to say, this has been rather educational." Herbert said, rolling down the window and sticking his head out.

Gwen pulled him back in before she could get pulled over by the police. "If I were you, I'd listen to the Doctor. You're lucky they didn't throw you into the nut house."

"Why, I wasn't lying. I didn't touch that lady and I gave them all the information they wanted."

"Because you're dead Mr. Wells." Gwen deadpanned, turning off the car and getting out. "When the Doctor tells you to do something, you've go to do what he says." Gwen had very little experience with the Doctor, but she knew Jack was enamored with him, so he must have been something.

Herbert got out of the car and followed Gwen's pace. She was walking fast and he did find it a little difficult to keep up, but he managed. She stopped suddenly and grabbed his arm, before pulling him onto a square marking on the ground. He eyed her quizzically, then just about jumped out of his boots when the ground started to move.

"What kind of trick is this?" He asked in wonderment as the two of them descended below the street.

"This is how we get inside." Gwen answered, the day catching up to her again.

"This is fantastic."

"Yeah, bloody brilliant." Gwen said, pulling him away from the concrete slab and pushing him onto the sofa. "You two didn't make it far did you?" Gwen asked as Jack plowed into the room.

"Something else caught my eye just as you left." Jack said. "Who is that?" He asked, looking at Herbert.

"Jack Harkness, meet Herbert George Wells."

Jack did a double take. "You mean H.G. Wells, the author?" Jack raised an eyebrow, looking at the man. "Kinda cute." Jack said winking.

"He's traveling with the Doctor."

This caused him to take another glance. "You're traveling with the Doctor?"

"He was supposed to take me home, but we were brought here instead." Herbert said, standing up and extending a hand of friendship.

Jack narrowed his eyes. "What does this man look like?"

Herbert closed his eyes for a moment and pictured the Doctor. "He's tall, curly hair and wears very colorful clothes."

"Must be a different regeneration." Jack mumbled. "Listen, Herb, you can't tell the Doctor anything about what you learn here. Promise?" Jack asked, pointing a finger directly between Herbert's eyes.

"Okay?" He answered with uncertainty.

"Good, now Gwen, what do these names have in common?" Jack asked, pulling a handful of pictures out of a file folder.

"Susan Feathertail, Hermione Blackstone, Diane Shingleton and Persephone Fitzgerald." Ianto said as the pictures hit the table.

"I have no idea." Gwen said, looking at the women.

"I know her." Herbert said, pointing to Hermione. "I found her in a cave last night, or was it this morning?"

"Good, we now know where to take you when this is finished." Jack said. "These women were all raped by women, or claim to have been raped by women in the last couple of nights."

"That Hermione woman had semen inside of her though." Gwen said.

"She did, they all did." Jack said, picking up the pictures and walking over to the computer.

"How do women rape other women and leave behind that kind of evidence?" Gwen asked, clearly confused. She was too tired to be dealing with this right now.

"They weren't raped by men or women. They were raped by creatures from another planet…" Jack said seriously. "Or another reality. I'm not sure yet."


	3. Chapter 3

"This is complete and utter bollocks." Gwen stated as she and Ianto walked into the hospital in search of violated women. She was beyond tired and just wanted to go home and sleep for a year.

"You could have just stayed away you know." Ianto said, digging through the file on Hermione.

"Don't start. I'll be fine after I sleep." Gwen said. There were times in the past where she had let her job get the better of her, this was one of those times. She just had to keep telling herself, she'd be allowed to sleep when she died.

Ianto just ignored her, knowing full well Gwen was a bear when she didn't get her sleep. Luckily it didn't happen too often.

"Hermione is insisting she remain in the hospital until they find the culprit." Ianto said as the two found their way to reception. "I have a sketch artist meeting us here so we can get the best description of the rapist. So far all the sketches are pretty similar in appearance."

Ianto handed the file to Gwen, who looked at copies of the sketches done by the other women's memories of the rapist. They all looked pretty much the same; no scratch that, they were obviously the same person. All four women were right; it was a woman, or at least someone who looked very much like a woman.

"I can't believe we've got women with penises. What is she a hermaphrodite?" Gwen said, shuddering.

"Female hermaphrodites don't usually create male reproductive cells. They may have both organs, but the secondary member is usually inert."

"So you believe Jack; this isn't human, but an alien."

"Jack seems to know what's he's talking about, so yes, I do believe him."

Gwen eyed her comrade. "This has nothing to do with you two shagging, does it?"

A small smile crept onto Ianto's features. "No, but that's definitely a fringe benefit."

Gwen just rolled her eyes.

/GG/

It took five minutes to get the receptionist's attention when Gwen and Ianto made it to the front desk. She was on a mobile, talking to someone about the planets that appeared and disappeared a couple of weeks ago.

Finally Gwen snapped at her and she hung up the phone. After a nice little grilling session, she pointed the two Torchwood employees in the direction of Hermione's room.

"I swear, the younger generation is getting so lazy." Gwen commented as she and Ianto looked for room 452.

"I won't take that as an insult." Ianto answered dryly.

"You should; I've seen you act just as thick as she did."

"I'm not even going to discuss with you the fact that the two of us are close in age, thereby sticking you into the same group you have me and the receptionist in." Ianto said, even dryer, as he pointed to the room.

Both could hear Hermione talking to someone in the room, or on the phone. She was describing the rapist, down to the clothes "she" was wearing. So it didn't surprise either Gwen or Ianto to see the sketch artist already in the room.

"I swear on my mum's grave, that freak got more pleasure out of me than I've gotten out of any man." Hermione was saying with an air of dignity.

"The feelings aren't going to help me sketch the face, so let's hold off on that bit of information and you can give it to the Torchwood representatives."

"I don't give a bloody care about Torchwood, or their people. I want the rapist found and hung from the tree in my yard." Hermione screeched.

"We'll see what we can do about that." Ianto said, making him and Gwen known to the group.

"Who the hell are you?" Hermione asked. The sketch artist rolled his eyes and basically said sorry with his body language.

"I'm Ianto Jones and this is Gwen Cooper." Ianto said, pointing to his coworker. "We're with Torchwood. We do want to hear about the feelings and sensations…if you don't mind." He added quickly.

"'Bout time someone asked my feelings on the situation." Hermione spat. "You'd think all the people in this world forgot manners. No one cares about the victim any more, what the victim feels. It's all about charging people with the crime."

By this time, not only were the sketch artists' eyes wide; Ianto and Gwen joined him.

"It felt awful." Hermione said, leaning back on her bed with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Can you elaborate Ms. Blackstone?" Gwen pressed.

"How else are you gonna bloody feel when someone sticks their unwanted sex organs in you?"

"I know it must have been awful, but can you give us any information that might help us catch this person? Something that stuck out about their appearance or how they acted?"

"She was a girl. That's rather different; a girl with a dick. You might want to check the hospitals for people having sex change operations." Hermione said, leaning further into her pillows.

Gwen looked at Ianto and wondered if this person was going to lead them anywhere. The picture was starting to look just like the other three, so there might not be anything more Hermione could add.

"I will tell you this though. That girl was strong and feminine at the same time. She just showed up out of nowhere and the minute that organ of hers penetrated, I felt as if all energy in the air started to electrify. I could feel the hairs all over my body stand on end."

The sketch artist handed Gwen the partially completed picture and Ianto took notes about the physical part of the attack. Both of them had heard about the Doctor being able to narrow down where someone was from based on information gathered, but neither knew if Jack had the same ability.

/GG/

"Tell me about this creature you have flying throughout the building." Herbert asked, watching the Pteranodon fly overhead.

"That's a dinosaur, kinda." Jack said, typing away on the computer. "We keep it here as a pet."

"Is it safe?"

"No."

Herbert took a step closer toward Jack; as if Jack could keep him out of harms way. "What are you doing?" Herbert had seen strange and wonderful things on his trip with the Doctor and he had filed it away in his imagination. Now that he was with Jack, he wanted to do the same thing.

"I am doing a search for Manticores on the computer. I'm trying to see if there is a connection between the lion/scorpion and the female that's really a male that's really a female."

"I've read about them in periodicals, women with…" Herbert started, then stopped himself for even contemplating the thought.

"I don't think we're dealing with your garden variety hermaphrodite Herb, I think this is something more. Take the Manticore. Someone thought it would be a good joke to cross a lion with a scorpion, thereby creating a single creature with two distinct forms of genetic makeup."

Herbert brought a chair over to the desk and watched Jack work. "So you think some scientist actually started cross-breeding beasts, like a horse and an ass and creating a mule?"

"Kind of." Jack said, pouring over information on Wikipedia. "Only this is crossing two completely different species, not two similar species. Imagine crossing a human with a cat. You get a human body with cat ears and a tail."

Herbert sat back and listened to Jack with half an ear after that. He couldn't believe how many brain cells that suggestion piqued. A cat and a human, a cow and a human, even a sea creature with a human.

"Ah-ha!" Jack suddenly shouted, causing Herbert to fall backward out of his chair. "A chimera!"

Jack glanced over at Herbert, who was removing himself from the floor.

"One human, crossed with another human, of the same or different gender, creating one being with two different types of DNA, and subsequently two different sets of organs, in some cases." Jack stood up and walked back to the table with the victims' pictures.

"Is that even genetically possible?" Herbert asked, mind moving a million miles an hour.

"Possible…maybe not, but definitely plausible." Jack said.

/GG/

Gwen had decided to leave rather than go into Torchwood headquarters. She wanted to say hi to Rhys, so Ianto walked inside without her.

"Where's Gwen, we're going to need her." Jack said as Ianto walked in, notes in hand.

"What for?" Ianto asked, eyeing Herbert, who was sitting on a chair with a pad of paper and a pencil, writing away frantically.

"If we're going to set a trap, we're going to need a woman. I don't think this "creature" is going to go for either of us."

Jack walked over and took the notes out of Ianto's hands and kissed him on the cheek.

"Gwen's not going to take too kindly to being used as bait." Ianto said, though he knew there wasn't really any other way.

"I know you know there isn't another way to catch her, so we're not going to discuss it." Jack said, looking over the pictures. "Same culprit. This will make the capture a whole lot easier."

/GG/

Gwen had just touched the doorknob of her flat when her phone started blaring. "I'm not going to answer it." She said, turning the knob. "I'm not going to answer it." She said opening the door.

"Gwen, are you gonna answer that mobile?" Rhys asked from somewhere inside.

"Fuck." Gwen said, reaching for the phone and answered it. "What do you want Jack?" Gwen asked, watching Rhys come from the kitchen, eating a bowl full of cereal, wearing absolutely nothing.

"We need you Gwen." Was all Jack said, before he hung up on his end.

Gwen looked Rhys over and smiled. "I expect to find you exactly as you are when I get back." She said, winking.

Rhys put down his bowl and did a pose, cocking his hips out at a comical angle, and adding more visual area to his groin.

"He'll stand at attention when you get back." Rhys said, blowing Gwen a kiss as she shut the door and left.

/GG/

"This better be good Jack, you don't know what you took me from." Gwen said as she stormed into work.

"We're using you as bait." Jack said.

"What for?" Gwen asked, full of suspicion.

"She's not going to come after a guy, and you're the only girl we have right now."

"Great."

Gwen was not happy.


	4. Chapter 4

Gwen was thoroughly pissed. For six hours she had gone from one parking garage to another, waiting for this rapist to come and try to have her way with her. At just after one in the morning, Gwen decided to start using the wire tap she was wearing.

"You are a bloody great wanker Jack." She said into the microphone. She knew that both Jack and Ianto were in the SUV and they were being accompanied by Herbert, who wasn't allowed to roam headquarters by himself.

"I love you too Gwen." Jack said. The comment came through the ear piece Gwen had hidden in her ear canal. She didn't realize how loud it was; so the comment caused her to wince.

"How long do I have to do this?" Gwen asked. It had been one hell of a day and she was tired. Rhys was sure to be in bed already, their fun cancelled due to time.

"Just one more hour. If the rapist doesn't show up by two, then we'll pack it in and call it a day. We can come back tomorrow."

"Oh joy."

Gwen started walking from the fourth story of the garage. Her car was parked on the lower level, so she figured she would take it slow.

/GG/

The being, whose name we cannot pronounce, watched the human girl as she walked along the concrete structure. Whether the members of its reality believed it or not, the systematic way the humans were searching for the perpetrator was productive.

The creature sat down on its haunches and gazed through the concrete slabs, using a perception we cannot even begin to imagine. It wanted to make sure this girl was safe from the derelict, who had somehow managed to sneak through the cracks in space and time; landing on a planet that only considered either of them a mutation.

/GG/

"Gwen, there was a build up of static electricity a second ago on the level directly below you." Jack said, watching readouts via the computer system in the SUV.

"Hermione had said something about static electricity when we were at hospital earlier." Gwen said, growing slightly edgy.

"Keep your eyes and ears pealed. Ianto and I are going to come up from the bottom floor and we can corner whatever is causing the jump in energy."

Jack and Ianto left the SUV on the lower level of the parking garage and made their way toward the second level, where the energy reading was coming from. Neither actually wanted Gwen to become the fifth victim of whomever it happened to be, so they moved with speed.

"Ianto, you have the portable cell with you, right?" Jack whispered as he raced up the ramp.

"I'm not about to let you down Jack." Ianto said, picking the cell from his pocket and showing it to his comrade and lover.

"Good."

The two kept up their speed until they came to the corner. Around the corner waited something; and it may have very well been after Gwen.

Jack held up his hand and kept Ianto behind him as he peered around the corner. He could see Gwen walking toward them in a stiff manner.

"Relax Gwen, we're here with you." Jack said calmly.

"Fat lot of good it'll do me if this thing carries me off." Gwen thought as she tried to relax. She could see the hairs on the back of her hand standing on end and she had a feeling deep within her cells that something was rotten in the parking garage.

She glanced around nervously and sped up a little; toward where she knew Jack and Ianto were probably waiting for her. As she turned her head to the left, she caught something out of the corner of her eye.

Within moments, she let out a scream as she was tackled to the ground and then flipped onto her back, the creature straddling her. She muffled a cry with her own will as she looked into the completely gray eyes of her attacker. She was surprised to see that, yes, this being looked more feminine than masculine.

Gwen and her attacker eyed each other for a few seconds. The attacker had long white hair and the face of a child. Gwen felt the slender fingers of the beings' hand start to move down toward her skirt.

"Come on Jack!" She thought fiercely, looking up in hopes of seeing Jack and Ianto on top of her and the being.

It took just a moment for her hands to be made immobile and her mouth to be covered with some sort of adhesive. She wasn't getting out of this if Jack didn't show up.

"Great cliché." She thought. "The damsel in distress. Remind me never to do something like this again."

/GG/

The being watched as the derelict effectively trapped the girl. It also saw the girl's friends moving, silently, toward the occurrence. There was a man watching from the corner of the ramp-way, but he wasn't going to be part of this, he was just supposed to watch.

It was just about to make itself known, when the humans made a stupid mistake; trapping both their friend and the one they were chasing in some sort of energy cell. The being watched as the one known as Jack started to threaten the creature if it harmed the girl.

/GG/

"We're going to let you out of there, you're going to let her go and then you're going to come, willingly, with us back to our headquarters. If you do all of that then maybe I won't kill you." Jack snarled at the creature who had Gwen trapped with it in the mobile cell.

"They are mine." The creature hissed. "You cannot have them."

"Good, you speak English, now let her go."

"I will take her with me, rather than let myself be taken by the likes of you."

The creature turned on its defense; it started itself on fire within the cell. Gwen cried out in pain as the heat from the burning creature started to burn her arm. The cell wasn't very big and she was pushing into the energy beam as far as she could go.

She could hear Jack and Ianto trying to get hold of the device that held the cell, but it was too hot. She turned and looked at her companions; a look of loss in her eyes. Then the energy cell disappeared and Jack pulled her away while the creature writhed in pain as it burned on the concrete.

"What the fucking hell." Gwen sputtered, looking at the mild burn on her arm where the creature had been holding her when it started torching itself.

"We didn't do that." Jack said, holding Gwen in his arms.

"No." Came a voice from behind them. "I did. I didn't want your human female hurt."

All three Torchwood members tore their eyes from the burning corpse and looked behind them. Whatever it was; it moved too fast to see and soon it was standing over the rapist. Eyes wide with wonderment and a small bit of apprehension, they looked at the being in front of them.

True to the tales, it had the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion, which looked on the verge of piercing something. The face of a man was something unexpected.

"Who are you?" Jack asked as the creature used its paw to turn over the charred body.

"You couldn't pronounce my name if you tried." The voice, calm and collected, said.

"Why are you here?"

"I came to collect this." The being said, indicating the body.

"What is it?" Jack asked, standing up and helping Gwen do the same.

"This is what you were thinking it was. Though it wasn't created by scientists. Where we come from, beings that are two different, of what you call beasts are common place. There are even beings like me, who have properties from what you would consider three or more sets of DNA. All beings on my planet have two working sets of reproductive organs." The creature said.

"What was it doing here?" Jack asked. The questions were short and to the point; he didn't know if he trusted this being yet.

"This is here completely by accident. It sensed there were none like it around, so it did what it's primal urge was, found suitable mates for reproduction." The lion beast picked up the body and tossed it on its back.

"So it wasn't here doing wrong, just what it thought it was supposed to be doing?" Jack asked. "What was with the fireworks?"

"All from my existence have the ability to destroy themselves, so they do not end up in the hands of research scientists. Why this one didn't completely burn away is a mystery though, and one I intend to research when I get back."

Jack looked at his team, who were no worse for the wear. Gwen was going to be fine and Ianto was safe.

"Do we need to worry about those women bearing children by your friend there?" Jack asked, looking to see if Herbert was also okay. The man was standing a hundred meters away, hiding behind a pillar.

"That I do not know." The Manticore stated. "You will have to follow up on that one yourself."

The Manticore nodded its large head, jumped over the group and disappeared in midair.


	5. Chapter 5

The four people in the SUV were completely silent as they drove Herbert to the parking garage where the TARDIS was located. All of them felt as if the entire experience was a dream; but then they looked at Gwen's arm and saw the first degree burn and knew it wasn't their imaginations.

"Is this a normal happenstance for you?" Herbert asked, wanting to get rid of the tension.

Jack looked in the rearview mirror. "Yeah, I'd sat today was pretty normal."

"Incredible." Herbert said, writing more in the notebook he took from Torchwood headquarters.

The remainder of the trip was silent and soon the parking garage where Herbert was found came into view. It no longer looked like a cave to him as he had a name to go with the structure now, but he wanted to remember the feeling he had when he first walked out of the TARDIS some twenty-four hours before.

"This is where we let you off Herb." Jack said, stopping the vehicle. "Now, just as a reminder, you can't tell the Doctor anything about us. Go ahead and write whatever and tell your friends, but the Doctor must be kept in the dark."

"Why is that?" Herbert asked as he opened the door and stepped out.

"Because we don't want to mess up the timeline." Jack said.

Herbert nodded and Jack drove away.

"Do you think he'll listen?" Ianto asked, looking at Herbert walk toward the TARDIS.

"He will, but he'll have one hell of a time writing about his experience." Jack said, laughing.

"I'm going to have to reread some of his books and see if we're mentioned in any of them." Gwen said, letting herself fall back on the seat. "By the way, I'm taking today off, and maybe tomorrow, so if anymore aliens or creatures from other worlds show up, tell them it's my day off and we can start up again on Thursday."

/GG/

"I sincerely hope you had fun out there Herbert, especially after I told you to sit still." The Doctor said, pacing around the control room.

"It was worth every second and worth every word you speak to me Doctor. I wouldn't change a thing." Herbert said, pulling out his notebook. A clipping fell out and Peri picked it up.

"What's this?" She asked as the Doctor started the TARDIS; aiming for Scotland.

"Research." Herbert said, grabbing for it.

"Chimera?" Peri said reading the paper out loud. "Doctor what's a chimera?"

"A chimera?" The Doctor asked, taking the paper from Peri's hand. The Doctor scanned the paper and his eyes went wide. "I can't let you keep this Herbert." The Doctor stated, pocketing the paper.

"It doesn't matter Doctor, I've got the information on that paper tucked away safely in my brain." Herbert said, handing his notebook over to the Doctor too.

"And that is where it will stay my good sir, until you are ready to share your knowledge with the world." The Doctor put his arm around Herbert's shoulder. "So tell me, what did you see while you were in Cardiff?"

END

I thank anyone who read this little story of mine.


End file.
